THE INFLUENCE OF ANXIETY AND PERSONALITY TYPE ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
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THE INFLUENCE
OF ANXIETY AND PERSONALITY TYPE ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SENIOR SECONDARY
SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
ABSTRACT
This study
examined the influence of anxiety on students’ academic performance in English
Language in Lagos State secondary schools. In this study, the relevant and
related literatures were reviewed under selected sub-headings. The descriptive
research survey was used in this study in order to assess the opinions of the
selected respondents with the application of the questionnaire and the sampling
technique. A total of 200 (two hundred) respondents were selected and used in
this study to represent the entire population of the study. Six null hypotheses
were formulated in this study and tested accordingly using the Pearson Product
Moment Correlation Coefficient statistical tool for hypotheses one, two and
three, and the independent t-test statistical instrument for hypotheses four,
five and six respectively. At the end of the analyses, the following results
were obtained: there is a significant relationship between anxiety and
students’ academic performance in English language at secondary school level,
there is a significant relationship between students’ attitude and their
academic achievement in English language at secondary school level, there is a
significant relationship between students’ personality and their academic
performance in English language at secondary school level, there is no
significant gender difference in the students’ achievement due to anxiety in
English Language, there is no significant gender difference in the academic
performance of students due to attitude in English Language and there is a
significant gender difference in the performance of students in English
Language due to their personality type. Based on the findings of this study,
the researcher made the following recommendations among others: students should
avoid being anxious before and during their examination in English language and
students should develop positive attitudes towards their study in English
Language.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
2.0Background
to the Study
English
Language plays an important role in the social, political and educational
sectors of Nigeria as a country. It is Nigeria’s official language, it is also
referred to as a second language (L2). It is the means of social, political and
even cultural interaction among the various ethnic groups in the country. This
is why some people tend to use and refer to it as a “lingua franca”, English
Language is not just a subject in the school curriculum, but the medium of
instruction in all other subjects except indigenous language. It is a very
important language (Jibowu, 2002). According to Jibowu (2002), the low
performance in English language by students at the West African Examination
Council (WAEC), for example usually brings great concern to parents, educationists
and teachers and the nation at large. A credit pass at least in the subject is
required for admission into higher institutions and for employment.
The ability
to speak intelligibly and write Standard English (SE) is often seen as a
yardstick for determining the educational standard of a person, his/her ability
and competence in the language of instruction have some influence on the
quality of performance in the other subjects.
According to
Ubahakwe and Ebo (1989), Nigeria in her 1979 constitution advocated equal
opportunity in education for her citizens. Education in Nigeria is expected to
play a harmonizational role which is as an instrument of national unity.
Nigeria is an egalitarian society where equal opportunity in education should
be given to the citizens but suffice it to say that this situation does not
occur. A situation where only the particular set of children get into the unity
schools does not allow the same equality of education for the citizens.
Durojaiye
(1994) observed that the current issue in Nigeria is efficiency in education.
According to him, in recent times, parents claim that there have been more
sophisticated measures of efficiency in private fee paying schools than in
public non-fee paying schools in the state schools. This efficiency in the
private schools ranges from the employment of enough and qualify English
language teachers, motivation of teachers, adequate remuneration and provision
of the same teaching-learning materials. Parents according to Durojaiye (1994)
draw this conclusion from the fact that many children from these private
schools gain admission to federal schools and most likely, into the
universities while others end up as bus conductors, drivers, carpenters, street
traders, mechanics, apprentices and in other menial jobs.
According to
Adeleke (1990) many factors contribute to mass failure of students in English
Language and other subjects especially from public non-fee paying schools. He
identified such factors as lack of motivation for teachers, students, low
interest in studying, unconducive school environment, lack of current
textbooks, non-provision of equipment, lack of up-top-date art learning
equipment and inadequate supply or provision of other important teaching and
learning materials in the public schools, other factors also include government
neglect of teachers, non-staff training programmes or inadequate staff training
and retraining programmes, poor remuneration and so on.
David (2000)
defines anxiety as an emotion characterized by feelings of anticipated danger,
tension and distress and by sympathetic nervous system arousal. Richardson and
Suinn (2003) on the other hand define mathematics anxiety as the feelings of
tension and anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of numbers and solving
of problem in a wide variety of ordinary life and academic situation. English
anxiety is postulated to affect both the extents to which a student pursues any
more than the minimally required amount of English training and the extent to
which the student is able to learn and perform English language skills and
concepts.
Attitude,
interest and perception are other factors that could affect students’
achievement in any subject including English language. Attitude is a
predisposition to perceive, feel and behave towards specific objects. An
attitude towards something consists of person’s collection of facts about the
subject which may enables the person to feel apathy towards it which that
attitude is related to sex, age and personality characteristics. Ayoola (2004)
opined that value influences attitude. Attitude can be positive or negative.
Monly (2002) advanced that attitude formation may be a matter of limitation.
Many of our attitudes are simply borrowed such as when the student accepts the
views of their teacher and other significant persons in their achievement.
Attitude can also be developed as a result of deliberate cultivation especially
by parents or teachers. Positive attitude of teachers will therefore foster
desirable attitude more than words. This statement has relevance to students’
attitude to English language. Hart (2005) found that there is a significant
correlation between attitude and achievement. Wardehn (2006) also found that
difference in attitude can be significant predictors of achievement in English
language. Students who have negative attitudes for English language would end
up performing poorly in the subject-matter. Not only that, negative attitude
causes English language anxiety which automatically leads to poor achievement
in the subject.
According to
Uzor (2004), students’ interests and perceptions count a lot in their over or
under achievements in subjects offered in the school system all over the world.
Uzor opines that if a student does not have any interest or have any negative
perception about any subject, the student will hardly achieve any success in
the subject in question. Adewunmi (2006), states that for a student to make a
relative success or high achievement in any subject pursued in the school
system, the student must develop the right attitude, the right interest and the
right perception that will lead to the right learning achievement in his/her
educational career.
For the fact
that English language is a core subject offered in school, and considering its
importance and compulsory nature in any child’s upward movement in academic
pursuit, students develop anxiety in achieving it. For instance, Amaonye (2006)
opined that most students fear the failure of English language and as such
apply any means possible to pass it. This is because they know that failure in
it may mar their educational progress in future.
1.1 Theoretical Framework
Sigmund
Freud (1957), believes that human behaviour is governed to a very great extent,
by instincts. Freud agrees that the process of personality development hinges
on the theory of psychosexual development. This theory of psychosexual
development is basically biological in nature with different unfolding stages
at which particular behaviours occur. The normal process of personality development
occurs from stage to stage, but this process of development may become abnormal
when an individual experiences some traumatic events in early childhood. When
this happens, the flow of the process of personality development becomes
fixated at any given stage and this eventually caused some crisis for the
individual later in life.
Due to the
fact that the person had abnormal development resulting in fixation when faced
stressful situations or conditions later in life, he may not be able to handle
this. Rather, the individual will regress by perhaps showing some infantile
behaviours. During any of the stages that an individual experiences conflict
according to Freud, there is a corresponding character pattern exhibited as an
adult. According to Freud (1957), there are other stages of an individual’s
development of personality. These stages are: the oral stage during which there
is separation of self from the environment; the anal stage, which occurs during
the second and third years of life. At this stage, pleasurable sensations shift
from the mouth to the anal cavity. The phallic stage is a stage between ages of
four and five pleasurable sensations shifting from the anal to cavity to the
genital area. Other development stages of an individual are: the latency stage
and the genital stage.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Human
behaviour is governed by instincts. The normal process of personality
development occurs from one stage to another, but the process may become
abnormal when an individual experiences some traumatic events at the early
stage of development. When this takes place, the flow of the process of
personality development becomes fixated, and this will eventually cause some
crisis for the individual later in life. The type of personality of an
individual determines the extent the individual carry out the affairs of life,
which include academic activities.
English
Language being one of the core and compulsory subjects a student must pass at
credit level before gaining admission into the higher institutions in Nigeria,
has been a torn in the flesh of many students. Generally speaking, students’
performance in English language has been on the downward in both the privately
and publicly organized examinations in Nigeria.
The problem
inherent in carrying out a comparative study on the academic performance of
students in English Language cannot be overemphasized. Generally speaking, many
students may be found to have low performance in English language and the
problem of poor performance is relatively prominent among students in the
public schools. This is because many teachers who teach in the public secondary
schools, may lack the positive attitudes to impart the knowledge to the
students.
Many factors
have been identified as causing students’ anxiety or fears on English language.
The perceived factors are: poor or negative attitudes on the subject; poor or
low background on the subject; the teaching application nature of the subject;
poor teaching methods; lack of students’ interests and motivation; poor teacher
mastery of content; overcrowded classroom (i.e.) poor teacher-student ratio;
lack of teaching material(s) etc. These factors militate against the effective
teaching and learning of the subject-matter and the resultant effect, is the
dismal or poor academic achievement of students in the subject. No wonder, year
in year out, students record very low marks on the subject and the consequent
academic set back of many students who could not pass it to move forward in their
academic career.
The above
identified problems gave rise to the examination of the influence of anxiety
and personality type on students’ academic achievement in the subject at the
senior secondary school level.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The major purpose
of the study is to examine whether anxiety and personality type has influence
on students’ academic achievement in the subject. The following are the
specific objectives of the study to:
(1) find out whether a relationship
exists between anxiety and students’ academic performance in the subject.
(2) examine whether there is
relationship between students’ attitudes and their achievement in English
language.
(3) Investigate whether there is
relationship between students’ personality and their achievement in English
language.
(4) examine whether there is gender
difference in students’ achievement due to anxiety in English language.
(5) find out whether there is gender
difference in the academic performance of students due to students’ attitudes
to English language.
(6) assess whether there is any gender
difference in English achievement due to personality among students in school.
1.4 Research Questions
This study
seeks therefore to answer the following questions.
(1) Will there be any relationship
exists between anxiety and students’ academic performance in English language?
(2) Will there be any relationship
between students’ attitudes and their achievement in English language?
(3) Will there be any relationship
between students’ personality and their achievement in English language?
(4) Will there be any gender
difference in students’ achievement due to anxiety in English language?
(5) Will there be any gender
difference in the academic performance of students due to attitudes to English
language?
(6) Will there be any gender
difference in students’ achievement in English language due to personality
type?
1.5 Hypotheses
The
following hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.
(1) There will be no significant
relationship between anxiety and students’ academic performance in English
language.
(2) There will be no significant
relationship between students’ attitudes and their achievement in English
language.
(3) There will be no significant
relationship between students’ personality and their achievement in English
language.
(4) There will be no significant
gender difference in students’ achievement due to anxiety in English language.
(5) There will be no significant
gender difference in the academic performance of students due to attitudes to
English language.
(6) There will be no significant
gender difference in students’ achievement in English language due to
personality type.
1.6 Significance of the Study
The findings
and recommendations of this study would be beneficials to the followings:
(1) Students: They would be able to
know more about the importance of English language achievement and its
relevance in school progress. This study will enable students to have a new
orientation concerning their negative perceptions about English language. It
will afford students to be seeing mathematics in positive ways.
(2) Teachers – would be able to know
more about the influence of anxiety on students’ achievement in English
language, not only that, the findings and recommendations of the study will
help many English language teachers to be in the know concerning some main
factors that militating against the teaching and learning of mathematics in
school. The study will help teachers in English language to correct some of
their negative attitudes towards the handling of English language in the
classroom etc.
(3) School Authority – The findings
and recommendations of this study would enable the school authorities to
reorder their priorities and change some of their policies that are inimical to
the teaching and learning of English language, especially at the secondary
school level of the Nigerian school system.
(4) Parents – would be able to have
proper information through this study concerning the importance and relevance
of English language to their children’s/wards’ academic careers. With this
study’s outcomes, parents would help their children/wards to pay more undivided
attention to he issues of English language in school, knowing its
unavoidability in school and its relevance to academic progress of their
children/wards.
(5) The Society – The society will be
proper informed and educated through the contents of this study. This is
because, members of the public would have first hand information and would be
properly in the known concerning the issues of English language, its relevance,
its importance and its unavoidability by students who wish to make progress in
their academic or educational careers.
1.7 Scope and Limitation of the Study
The study
covered the influence of anxiety and personality type on English language
achievement among students in senior secondary schools in Mainland Local
Government Area of Lagos State. In this study, finance, time frame within which
to complete the study and other unforeseen circumstances would be some
constraints of this study.
1.8 Definition of Terms
The
following operational terms were defined in this study:
(1) English Anxiety: This is a term to
describe the level of fear or uneasiness of students in tackling or facing
English language problems in schools. This anxiety makes them to perform well
in the subject, because they do not study well in the midst of anxiety.
(2) English Achievement: This term
refers to the level of performance by students who study English language in
school. It could be their performances in school tests or the overall school
examinations etc.
(3) Students’ Attitudes: This is the
way and manner students perceive the subject (English language) in school.
Their attitudes could be negative or positive depending how they see the
subject (English language) etc.
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